[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 127, 113th Congress, 1st Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
PROCLAMATION 8935--FEB. 28, 2013

Proclamation 8935 of February 28, 2013

Women's History Month, 2013
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
For more than two centuries, our Nation has grown under the simple creed
that each of us is created equal. It is a notion that makes America
unlike any other place on earth--a country where no matter where you
come from or what you look like, you can go as far as your talents will
take you.
Women's History Month is a time to remember those who fought to make
that freedom as real for our daughters as for our sons. Written out of
the promise of the franchise, they were women who reached up to close
the gap between what America was and what it could be. They were driven
by a faith that our Union could extend true equality to every citizen
willing to claim it. Year after year, visionary women met and marched
and mobilized to prove what should have been self-evident. They grew a
meeting at Seneca Falls into a movement that touched every community and
took on our highest institutions. And after decades of slow, steady,
extraordinary progress, women have written equal opportunity into the
law again and again, giving generations of girls a future worthy of
their potential.
That legacy of change is all around us. Women are nearly half of our
Nation's workforce and more than half of our college graduates. But even
now, too many women feel the weight of discrimination on their
shoulders. They face a pay gap at work, or higher premiums for health
insurance, or inadequate options for family leave. These issues affect
all of us, and failing to address them holds our country back.
That is why my Administration has made the needs of women and girls a
priority since day one--from signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to
helping ensure women are represented among tomorrow's top scientists and
engineers. It is why we secured stronger protections and more preventive
services for women under the Affordable Care Act. It is why we have
fought for greater workplace flexibility, access to capital and training
for women-owned businesses, and equal pay for equal work. And it is why
we have taken action to reduce violence against women at home and
abroad, and to empower women around the world with full political and
economic opportunity.
Meeting those challenges will not be easy. But our history shows that
when we couple grit and ingenuity with our basic beliefs, there is no
barrier we cannot overcome. We can stay true to our founding creed that
in America, all things should be possible for all people. That spirit is
what called our mothers and grandmothers to fight for a world where no
wall or ceiling could keep their daughters from their dreams. And today,
as we take on the defining issues of our time, America looks to the next
generation of movers and marchers to lead the way.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and
the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 2013 as Women's
History Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this month and to
celebrate International Women's Day on March 8,



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2013, with appropriate
programs, ceremonies, and activities. I also invite all Americans to
visit www.WomensHistoryMonth.gov to learn more about the generations of
women who have shaped our history.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day
of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
seventh.
BARACK OBAMA